A pensioner that was involved in an illegal cigarette network and spent over £1m at betting shops in the year of the scam has avoided jail.

David Hodgson, 68, was part of an enterprise that included two of his sons that posted six metric tonnes of tobacco in hundreds of parcels from mainland Europe to the UK, evading £1,143,373 in tax.

Hodgson was remanded in custody after four members of the gang were jailed last week and he was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years today at Teesside Crown Court.

Robin Denny, defending Hodgson of Oaktree Court, Catterick, said that the defendant had spent an “uncomfortable weekend in custody” and that he was “genuinely in extremely bad health” and takes various pills every day.

However, Judge Sean Morris was less sympathetic to Hodgson, who spent £1.1m at betting shops, losing £117,000 in the process.

Speaking to Mr Denny he said Hodgson “richly deserves to immediately go to prison” and that he was “swinging the lead a lot” when speaking of his health issues.

Read More

As well as the suspended sentence, Hodgson was given a six month curfew which will run from 5pm until 6am every day and ordered to pay £1,500 court costs.

Judge Morris said: “He can be in prison in his own house rather than at the public’s expense.”

Hodgson was involved in a network that travelled abroad, bought and packaged cheap tobacco and posted it back to the UK through legal couriers between July 2012 and August 2013.

They posted parcels, describing the contents as plant pots, fabrics, decorating, gardening and catering supplies, mainly from hotels in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The consignments were delivered to a network of willing volunteers back home at addresses in the Middlesbrough , Darlington, Catterick, Richmond and Wakefield areas, to be collected and distributed on the black market.

He jailed the “principal organisers” - John Hodgson, from Richmond, and “distribution hub” Paul Hodgson, from Colburn, Catterick Garrison - for four years and 10 months each.

Paul’s son Joshua Hodgson, 24, also from Colburn, was jailed for three years.

Paul Hooper, 53, of Westmoreland Street, Darlington, was jailed for four years and seven months.

Mechanic Daniel Keith Whitmore 26, of Pensbury Street, Darlington, and Ashlea Kirk, 45, from Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, were given two-year prison sentences suspended for two years.

Teesside University student Angela Marquiss, 38, from Richmond, was given a one-year suspended sentence.

Ian Gregory was given a five-month jail term suspended for 18 months.

Four people were given community orders with unpaid work – 250 hours for Russell Blakeburn, 60, from Leicester, Joanne Haskell, 35, from Richmond and Deborah Bowie, 40, from Wakefield; 200 hours for Trevor Seal, 44, of Front Street, Appleton Wiske.

Two more people – Peter Jackson, 59, from Richmond, and Pamela Hall, of Church Street, Shildon, Co Durham – were bailed for sentencing on December 20.